Scientists have known for years that our atoms and cells vibrate with different frequencies, as do all other elements such as minerals. Practitioners who have worked with visceral manipulation realize that the organs also have their own mobility and motility. If you have studied yoga and the chakras, you may know that the subtle energy of the body flows through these channels. In fact, varied yoga teachings associate certain tones to each chakra. If you have done sound meditation, you may have noticed that different frequencies resonate in different chakras of the body creating a calming or peaceful state.

Ancient Chinese Five Element Theory also uses sound healing. The Chinese theory is that the earth and the body contain the five elements of creation. They are fire, water earth, metal and wood. In the body, each element is associated with a meridian, an organ and a specific sound. The five notes comprise the pentatonic scale which has been used in Chinese musical compositions. Music based on these notes has been used to facilitate healing of organs in the body.

In his book, Vibrational Medicine, Dr. Richard Gerber highlights the use of vibrational frequencies in healing processes. Unlike traditional medicine which is based in Newtonian concepts, vibrational healing is based on Einstein’s concepts of energy,

“The Einsteinian paradigm as applied to vibrational medicine sees human beings as networks of complex energy fields that interface with physical/cellular systems. Vibrational medicine uses specialized forms of energy to positively affect those energetic systems that may be out of balance due to disease states.”

He talks about practitioners who have used vibration to help with emotions, illness and even heal bones! Modalities used in vibrational healing include light, sound, homeopathic remedies, electromagnetic and even crystals.

When exposed to vibrational frequencies, water droplets have responded by organizing from a circular drop into different shapes and patterns. Our body is over 60% water. Most of our water is in a bound state, creating a liquid crystal arrangement which creates a physical, electrical and mechanical protective barrier for our cells and tissues. Can you imagine the effect of vibration on the organization of water in our body?

If you have ever heard and felt the sounds in your body created by a crystal bowl or gong being played, you know the profound positive effect it can have on the body and your emotions. It can help facilitate a calm and meditative state and promote relaxation.

If you haven’t, you now have the opportunity to experience these unique sound baths in a meditative state here at BDS.

On February 4th you have the opportunity to experience both a crystal bowl sound bath from 11:15-11:45am and a Deep Gong meditation from 5:00-5:30pm. Both are free and open to the public.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy new year! We have so much planned for the upcoming year! Whether you want to get your healthy eating on track, work on back pain, or adopt a regular mediation practice, we have something for you.

January features a cleanse with Ruth Clark. A free session about cleansing is scheduled on January 11th with a 3 week cleanse to follow. Detox the body and get back to healthy eating.

Sage is doing a second Rest and Write workshop on January 8th. The workshop starts with a restorative session and then takes you to pen and paper into the world of Gateless Writing. Find out more on our workshop page.

MELT returns to the studio. January 21st Linda Owoc, PT is here doing a MELT workshop for back pain and pelvic core stability. Her workshops have sold out in the past, sign up soon to get an early bird discount, which expires on January 1st.

Janet's popular restorative workshop returns on January 15th. This also sells out! Relax and unwind tension from your body. Leave feeling blissful!

And as always, this is winter and sometimes the weather doesn't allow us to run classes. Remember to check the website for cancellations!

I remember years ago being intrigued by this “little old lady” doing these amazing yoga postures. I tracked her down and found out her name was Vanda Scaravelli. She had published a book, Awakening the Spine, which I bought and loved reading her stories and thoughts about our bodies’ relationship to gravity.

“If we were plants, ground level would be waist high, our legs would be the roots, our spine, the stem and our heads like the flower growing upward. We are being pulled into the earth, without effort or action on our part. Don’t ask the flower to push, the sun brings it out, and the roots are pulling it down in the same movement. The deeper the roots, the higher the flower goes. Finding the ground-the pull of gravity underneath us- and the awareness that our legs, pelvis ad spine are what support us, allows our upper body to relax, and release.”

Vanda Scaravelli

This place where we live, Southern New Hampshire, has come alive with plant life in the last month or so. Many of us are tending to our gardens and welcoming the magnificent array of colors and scents that have exploded around us.

Every morning I go out and watch my flowers opening, stretching and smiling. It reminds me of how I too am like a flower. I have the ability to expand and in fact it is in the expanding that I find what I am seeking: relief from the tension of contracting and the ability to open up into my very flower essence.

I like to think of it as the ability to “radiantly blossom.” I am in awe of the flowers ability to do it, and I know we can all blossom right where we are anytime we take a moment to connect with the earth beneath us and grow our roots down deeply.

Doesn’t that sound incredibly delicious?

Just the other day, as my mind was inclined toward this notion of rooting into the ground and blossoming, I received a reading from Thich Nhat Hanh. His reading added a missing piece to this blossoming; the emotions and the mind.

Our mind sometimes becomes disconnected from our rooted body and lives a life “up in the air” ping ponging between the past and the future and most always following the thread of what is wrong and what needs to be fixed. At times it feels like a storm is raging up there in the mind and the best way to weather any storm is to find shelter.

Thich Nhat Hanh so brilliantly points out how we can find that shelter down in our roots, it is always available to us.

"Picture a tree in a storm. At the top of the tree, the small branches and leaves are swaying violently in the wind. The tree looks vulnerable, quite fragile - it seems it can break at any time. But if you look at the trunk, you will see that the tree is solid; and if you look down to its root structure, you will know that the tree is deeply and firmly rooted in the soil. The tree is quite strong. It can resist the storm.

We are also a kind of tree. Our trunk, our center, is just below our navel. The zones of our thinking and our emotions are at the levels of our head and chest. When we are taken hold of by a strong emotion, like despair, fear, anger or jealously, we should do our best to leave the zone of the storm and go down to the valley to practice breathing in and out. If we stay in the winds of the storm, it may be too dangerous. We can go for refuge into the trunk, breathing in and out, aware of the rising and falling of our abdomen."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s a comfort to know that what we have always sought has always been within us all along.

Muscles tighten and jaws clench just because they are attempting to stand on one foot or the other.

Thoughts like; “I’ve got to be able to do this, I can’t fall, why don’t I have better balance and this is very serious ”

seem to flood the mind, and nothing but a ton of tension is created.

Creating more tension in an already (well, most of us) tight body is not really the point when practicing yoga!

I bet if we switched up the self talking that goes on in the head to something different, we might alleviate most of that tension.

What if we used balance as an opportunity to not give up on ourselves?

Maybe we could take on a “so what” attitude.

I am falling, so what.

I fell, so what.

I might fall, so what.

I’ll be a cheater if I leave a foot on the floor or hold the wall. Really? Who says so and anyway, “so what!”

Why do we use so many opportunities to make ourselves wrong, to set a high bar of perfection that we might never reach?

And along the way, as we are trying to reach that “perfection,” we get really tense

and usually

give up on ourselves.

The other day I watched a squirrel climb a bush outside my window and then try to hop from a branch in the bush over to a bird feeder that sat in the middle of the lawn. They were NOT close together at all.

That crazy squirrel! He did not give up.

I sat and watched the “jumping squirrel show” outside my window. And before too long, he nailed it.

He jumped from the bush to the roof of the bird feeder, where he landed flat on his feet. I didn’t think he could do it. I wanted to go out and shake his hand, tell him I was so impressed with his perseverance; I admired his style.

I counted how many times he tried and DIDN’T make it to the bird feeder. 17 times all together!

That’s not counting the times he tried to climb the bird feeder pole only to be greeted with the squirrel shield that stopped him in his tracks.

He never gave up on himself.

He kept choosing to go back again and again, until finally, there he was, where he wanted to be.

Jump. Fall. Get up. Repeat.

Over and over.

Sort of like, balance, fall, get up, repeat in yoga class.

Granted, he was looking for food to sustain him and fill his belly.

But aren’t we looking for something to sustain us when we practice yoga?

Aren’t we looking for a place of kindness and release in both our bodies and our minds?

Next time you are about to “jump” into a balance posture, channel some squirrel energy.

As I put on my ‘painting pants’ getting ready to give the studio a fresh coat of paint, I fished into my pocket and found a slip of paper. It was one of those fortunes you get in the Chinese restaurant. It said, “when one journey ends a new one begins”. This new journey started for me when Alexandra, who ran the studio for over 10 years, decided to start a new journey of her own. I have enjoyed teaching in this beautiful space for over four years and have often thought of opening a space for classes and workshops. After reading her note about her decision leave, I knew it was time. The studio has been a place of community, learning, growing and of healing. I felt so strongly that it should continue.

Since then things have moved quickly to get ready for our re-opening on February 1st. Working with Alexandra and Willard our landlord, putting on a fresh coat of paint, organizing a team of talented instructors, and about a million more details. I have so many people to thank already. Nanette Perrotte and Janet Archer, who share my vision and are helping to realize it. Both will be instructing at the studio and have exciting plans. Cathie Runyon and Lynn Heckathorn, long time students and friends who gave up their precious weekend time to help clean and paint. And of course, my husband Bob, my ‘facilities manager’ as he likes to call himself. Without his support and hard work none of this would have been possible.

Although there will be new classes and faces in the studio, you will still see many familiar ones as well. Margaret, Nancy and Julianna will continue to teach their classes. All our classes, workshops and more will be posted on our website. www.bodyworksds.com

I am truly excited to be opening Bodyworks at Depot Square~ a mind body collaborativeand I hope you join me on this new journey.